Hey There Cupcake!

I have started clicking on the sketch and challenge blogs once again and have started to get back into them after a long absense - it's been fun!  Since I've been out of it for so long, I'm looking for some new ones to add to my sketch and challenge blog roll, so if you have any to recommend I'd love to check them out!

Today I'm going to share a card that I did for Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge Blog.  The current Challenge #49 is "From the Kitchen" so I figured what a perfect time to pull out my Cupcake Sprinkles stamp set and put it to good use.  Here is my card:

I used the new Sophia papers, along with the Stay Left pattern from Wishes.  I also used some fun new pink ribbon under the cupcake and one pom pom that I snipped off and added to the top of the cupcake.  As I mentioned in my last post, I found my coluzzle and put it to good use to cut out my circles - for the Blush circle I then used my corner rounder to create a scallop circle - I love that technique!    I then edge distressed both of those and heat embossed the sentiment with White Daisy EP.

I still have a couple dozen more cards to share, and some pages as promised in my last post, so stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting!

Yippee!

I just found out that I won First Runner-Up for CTMH's Make It From Your Heart Contest! I am glad that I started submitting artwork again - it's been over a year since I've sent anything in, and this was a fun way to start off! My goal last year was to submit something every month, but it just didn't happen. I hope to try at least every other month this year so wish me luck - the other artwork is always so amazing, so any time I win, I am always thrilled! Thanks for letting me share - I needed this pick-me-up!

ETA: Sorry, I didn't realize that CTMH no longer posts the contest results on the public side of their website. For those of you who are not CTMH Consultants, I wish you could see all the fabulous artwork, but for those who asked, THIS is my card that won.

Clearly The Best!

Tomorrow is the last day for the You Tube viewing contest, so I'm just bumping this to the top to help my CTMH Sisters out! I also found a new one today - it's at the bottom.

***

Close To My Heart is having a video contest - Consultants have been challenged to create short, informative videos posted on YouTube that demonstrate why Close To My Heart stamps are “Clearly the Best.” I am not participating in this contest myself, I just had to share some of the fabulous videos that have been created and shared so far. The entrant whose video garners the most YouTube views will win $500 cash, so be sure to watch your favorite over and over!

***

If anyone would like me to link their video here, just leave me a comment and let me know - these are the ones I have viewed so far, but I would love to see them all!

Tresa Black

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp424x13WIc

Teri Baxter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWcadf8h68g

Melanie Harmsma

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6VgLmhwsVc

Elissa Stong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81sYVsE09wc

Rachel Schumann

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2wyfLm7iNM

Clerissa Lewis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap3cv7rzDLs

Helen Onulak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlRuPsvhZLU

Ruth De La Cruz-Nava

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDxfmJDREwk

Michelle Nist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrdOTVe9mTw

Amanda DesJardins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEhxF4U5-iM

Brae Montgomery

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfcVC4tOh-4

Christine David

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X593ZdFVkKQ

Kristina Baldwin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qMuJKN7Udg

Aaron Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSQmJFBwrV8

Mandy Leahy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDHQfvrvLPM

Melissa Laverty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXW0CGRas3o

Tarah Faulkner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXxxkZa2iIQ

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme
TodaysMama and Provo Craft are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
-A happy, healthy family is #1 of course - I have everything I could ever want, but since that wasn't the question, I'll fill in some more ;-)
-Nestabilities
-Wall-mounted Jewelry Box
-Wii
-Steam Mop
2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
-I have received SO many, it's hard to pick just one - my mom's crochet snowflakes are probably my most treasured, they decorate my tree every year!
3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
-A complete scrapbook - the best I can do are a couple pages at a time ;-)
4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
- When I was 4 (?) I got a saddle - I still remember the way my dad reacted when I ran into their room so excited to tell them what I got :-)
5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
-Kaylee - Spy Gear, Brianna - Dora and the Pegasus, Brailee - Cupcake Maker, and Trysten would be happy with the wrapping paper and shiny bows!
6. What is your favorite holiday food?
- Scottish Eggs and Sourdough Waffles
7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
- knitted slippers, ornaments, cards
8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
- A Christmas Story of course - 'You'll shoot your eye out!'
9. Favorite holiday song?
- I LOVE Christmas music so it's hard to narrow it down to one - some of my favorites are Amy Grant's Breath of Heaven, and other favorite holiday albums are by Jewel, Eclipse, Sarah McLachlan, Josh Groban, and SheDaisy
10. Favorite holiday pastime?
-Opening Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve

Beauty...

...is in the eye of the beholder. I thought that title went perfect with this picture - I just love how excited Brailee gets every time she finds a 'wish' - and I let her spread her wishes all around my yard because I love to see her so full of joy ;-P

***

I used the following PageMaps sketch for their Studio Calico sketch contest.

I love this picture, even though it's not the best - Brailee looks fine but the flower was hard to see because of the shadow and its soft/light look so I tried to enhance it with a Dimensional Element circle and a little vellum - I stamped the vellum to create another flower overlay - I don't think you can see it in this picture or not. So then I decided, to go with the sketch, and continue the vellum look, I stamped more flowers on vellum and adhered them up the side. That's where this layout loses it for me - now I look back and wonder if vellum is the way to go or if I should have used a transparency again like I did with THIS layout. What do you think? After I added the vellum I just kinda stopped with this layout as I'm just not thrilled with it - I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions!

***

Click on the picture to view it larger.

CTMH Products Used: Twitterpated paper pack, Friendship Alphabet (embossed with Clear EP), Embossing Stylus, Sanding Block, Treasures stamp set, White Daisy stamp pad, Dimensional Elements On Target, Vellum, Crystal Blue and Sweet Leaf stamp pads
Other Products Used: Photo Corner punch (SU!), computer font (Missy)

PageMaps - Apron Strings sketch contest

I used the following sketch from the PageMaps Blog's latest contest and created this page for Trysten's 7 Month Calendar page. This contest was supposed to have a summer theme - I think the only way it qualifies is the fact that the picture was taken in the summer ;-) as it has more of a baby theme to me! But it's been a while since I've entered their contests so it was fun to try again!

This is where I got a little ahead of myself - usually for his calendar pages I like to use a picture that was taken close to the 24th so I can get a good month in between pictures, but I just loved this picture way too much and had to use it, even though this picture was only taken one week after his 6 month page picture. Isn't he just the cutest! This was another super quick page - all I had to cut was the circles and photo mat and the stamping was fast and easy - you can tell I did it quickly as I got some of my 'stitches' crooked, but I like how it turned out. Oops - I just noticed on all the calendar pages that I posted this week that I forgot to add my filler squares - I'm off to do that now!

Products Used (All CTMH): Stardust Paper Pack, Circle Around stamp set, Rustic Numbers, Hodge Podge Alphabet, Comments stamp set.

***

I have one more page from Trysten's calendar to post tomorrow so I hope you're not sick of it and will come back to see more! Thanks for looking!

***

Oh, and if you'd like to check out all the calendar pages, you can view them at the following links:
Birth Month

1 Month Old

2 Months Old
3 Months Old & 4 Months Old
5 Months Old

6 Months Old

Fair Results 2009

The girls and I entered some stuff again in the county fair this year - here it all is...

The girls were in the Kidz Stuff category and all participants get a ribbon for participating, but here is how my stuff did:

***

My flip-up pages featuring Ghostbuster from 1985-2007 got a first and then a Champion ribbon and a $25 gift certificate from Ben Franklin crafts - good to know that Ghostbuster is still helping me win big! Here are the pages closed...

And they open up to this...

This page of Kaylee and Brianna won 1st place

This page of Brailee won something but I'm not sure what ;-P When I went down to the fairgrounds to look at the exhibits, I thought I remember seeing a Third place ribbon on it. I was out of town when they released all entries so I had a friend pick them up for me and there was no ribbon when I got it back, but the entry tag says "R" under Placing so maybe it got Red for Second? All of my First place entries have "B" there which I assume means Blue for First.

Here are the cards that I entered:

***

I took this card from this workshop and turned it into a baby announcement using the Sweet Baby stamp set. I also added the words 'little one' from the Random Thoughts stamp set under Hello. Here it is before...

...and after. This card won First place.

This card was created for this workshop - it also won First.

This card won First as well.

I also entered the next two cards but I don't remember how they did - when I told my friend what projects to pick up for me I totally forgot about these ones so I didn't get them back ;-P I think the invitation got Second but I don't remember the owl.

Update - I went down to the fair grounds today and picked up these two cards - they both won First!

I also entered two of these ornaments in the Recycled paper sculpture contest - they won First. If you remember from when I posted them in December, they are made from old Christmas cards.

This was my first year entering photographs - here is what I entered. Only half of what I entered actually placed - I was really surprised with how some of them did - one of my absolute favorites didn't even place, and one I just threw in to get it in the category ended up winning Second. I look forward to entering more next year!

***

This one of Trysten got Second in the colored portraits category.

This one got Second in the Patriotic themed category

This one got First in the candid black and white category.

This one got first in the any other b&w photo category.

The following pictures didn't place but I still love them ;-P

Thanks for looking!

Sweet Baby Face - PageMaps Sketch Contest

Here is my last minute entry for this month's PageMaps Blog Sketch Contest. I have been really sick today so while David and the girls were outside playing and doing a little spring cleaning, I just took it easy inside. I had an hour where I actually felt good enough to do some scrapping, so I pulled out these old pictures of Brianna, and this fun bright paper that my SIL Sandy gave to me, and put together this page. I didn't think out of the box with this sketch since the pictures fit perfectly, plus I wasn't feeling very creative with this cold ;-P but here it is!

***

ETA: I just noticed that the contest deadline has been extended, so give this sketch a try! You now have until the 25th.

I used a variety of White Daisy rub-ons from CTMH, flower brads from the White Daisy Mini Medleys, Color-Ready alphabet stickers, and the following stamp sets from CTMH: Calendar, Noteworthy, Precious Alphabet, Sans Alphabet, and Adorable.

***

Thanks for looking and I appreciate your comments.

My Buddy - Free-for-All Contest

My dear SIL, Sandy, came over yesterday to 'play' and she brought her new 'toy' - the Slice - to share with me. It was fun to use on the following layout - I used her fun toy for the word 'Buddy' and for the scalloped circle.

These are just a couple of my favorite pictures of Brailee holding Trysten - she is always asking to hold him and always telling me to take a picture! This page is about how she calls him 'Buddy' - it's just too cute! I used the retired Sonata paper and new Noteworthy stamp set - I used the largest bracket from that stamp set on the back of the floral paper to create the shape used in the sketch - anyone know what that particular shape is called? It's so popular but I have no idea what it's called ;-P Anyway, a quick but fun layout - it feels good to be scrapping!

This was my entry in the latest PageMaps Blog Contest - using the following sketch...the contest runs until the 16th, so give it a try!

Thanks for stopping by!

Last Day for Baby Predictions!

If anyone still wants to take a guess at the details on our upcoming addition to our family, today is the last day if you want to get entered into the drawing for the stamp set! Check out the original post here for details on the guessing game - it's been fun to read everyone's predictions, I'm interested to see how close everyone is!

BTW - I still feel great and you have all been too kind with your comments - most people who see me in person, they tell me I look like I'm about to pop, and then I tell them I have 3 more weeks and they look like they feel sorry for me ;-)

Hooray - doing the happy dance!

I just checked the CTMH Artwork winners and I won twice!!!

I got 3rd place for my Christmas Ornaments for the December Make It From Your Heart contest.

I also got 2nd Runner-Up for my Congrats baby card for the Exclusive Color Contest! I didn't plan on entering this one, but I didn't have anything else ready to enter, so I just sent it in with my entry for the other contest - I'm glad I did!

All of the artwork is always so fabulous, I'm honored to win - thanks for letting me toot my own horn ;-)

First Page of the New Year!

It felt so good to finally get a page done this year! I've had this picture sitting on my desk with this paper for at least the last 6 months, just never got the inspiration to do anything with it. Anyway, this month's PageMaps sketch contest is using the following sketch...

I've used this sketch before on this layout, but wanted to try it again since it's one of my favorites. So as I was flipping through my pictures, I came across this one and knew it would be perfect! I didn't notice until now that both layouts using this sketch are swim/water themed ;-P I didn't add as many layers/papers as there are in the sketch since I didn't want to cover up very much of this paper, but I am really pleased with the results! I also flipped the sketch upside down. I didn't plan on the folded corner thing, but when I finished the LO, I noticed some pen scribbles up there (I wonder who the culprit is...) and had to cover them up, and I really like how that turned out, even though it was just an afterthought. Here are my sweet girls - I just love the looks on their faces here - so full of love!

Anyway, enough rambling, here is my layout. I used some paper from We R Memory Keepers (Frenzy - Dither) along with some Summer Celebration Textured Die Cuts, Ocean textured CS for the corner and the scallop circle frame (I cut this with the new Big Coluzzle Circle and then added the scallops using my corner rounder), Orange CS, Summer Carnival Bigger Brads, Love Letters Rub-Ons, white brads, and Today's Date stamp set. Here are some close-ups of the Rub-Ons and folded corner.

Thanks for looking!

Last Minute Contest Entries

I really should be working on getting Kaylee's new room ready for her so we can move the girls to their new sleeping arrangements before the new baby comes, but I was still in a scrappin' mood and David was off to the YM/YW New Year's Activity, so I decided to do some last minute entries for the contests on the PageMaps Blog.
***

This page is for the sketch contest using the following sketch...

And I created a companion page to go with it - using January's Reflections Challenge (Bottom Border - Portrait on page 28)

So here they are together - I used one of my favorites, the Cocoa Cafe paper, Cranberry Safety Pins and Brads, Cocoa Grosgrain and Colonial White RicRac ribbons, Classic Alphabet Dimensional Elements and Color Ready Alphabets (stamped with Spot On Background)

And since my girls are such goofballs and love to take silly pictures, I had some extra pictures that I wanted to include, so I put them in a 6 pocket Photo Page (cut in half) and they will go in between the above pages.

This card is for Brailee since she is just so drawn to owls for some reason right now. This is for the Hero Arts card sketch contest - we were to use the following sketch...

I used CTMH's NEW Emporium paper and the Whooo Loves You stamp set with Cocoa Brads for the eyes.

Hooray - another Runner-Up!

I just checked the Contest Winners on the CTMH website and found out that I got First Runner-Up in the Rub-Ons contest - how exciting! You can see my card here or on my original post here.

Anything Goes Challenge

Here is a fun round tin project that I did for Lynn's Anything Goes Bella Challenge. The requirements were to do a 3-D project with Bella and add bling! This is a tin to save memories of "the wait" - it's for a gift, so I'm not ready to share the inside pages yet, but I think the outside of the tin turned out fun - I added tiny sparkles all over the place - one on Bella's bow, one on the brad on the flower, one on the bow on the side of the tin (I don't think you can see it very well on the pics here), and then all around the Cocoa edge.

***

Top View

Side View

Thanks for looking!

PageMaps Blog Think Pink Sketch Contest

Update - Thanks to Marjorie for giving a blogger photo fix tip - it's a little more work, but hopefully the real problem will get fixed soon.

***

I haven't done a layout for a while and it felt so good to get back to the pictures! This one was done for the latest PageMaps Sketch Contest - we were to use the sketch provided and scrap about something meaningful to you. My girls are my world, so I figured that would work ;-) Anyway, I just love these pictures of Brailee - she was barely 2 months old and had such a fun, crooked smile, isn't she cute! I have always wanted to use this quote and it was just perfect for these pictures. I used these fun Fancy Kewl papers, and these fun bright flowers and gems that Kari sent me for my birthday - they coordinated perfectly - thanks again, Kari! Once again, I used the Friendship Alphabet stamp sets - I just cannot stop using them! I clear embossed the title on the patterned paper and cut out. I used a Window Charm over the letter 'A' for the center of the green flower. Thanks for looking!